Ghost Towns of the Pine Barrens

Some say the Pine Barrens of New Jersey contain more ghost towns then the entire American west. Learn about the unique places and villages that rose up around the iron furnaces, glass factories, and other industries in the 18th and 19 centuries only to later disappear.

Isolated deep in the Pinelands, Harrisville is a genuine ghost town from the late 1800’s.

The Pine Barrens of New Jersey contain more ghost towns, some say, then the entire America west. The Pinelands of today with its pristine woodlands and unique plant and animal communities, is a very different place than the busy industrial center it once was several hundred years ago. Barbara Solem, author of Ghost Towns and Other Quirky Places in the New Jersey Pine Barrens, will take participants on a tour of many of the forgotten industrial towns that once thrived in the Pine Barrens.

The Pine Barrens of New Jersey contain more ghost towns, some say, then the entire America west.

This is a small group bus tour. The group will learn about the unique places and villages that rose up around the iron furnaces, glass factories, paper mills, cranberry farms and brick-making establishments of the 18th, 19th and early 20th century. Many of these old towns will be explored on foot as we search for the remnants of villages that once turned the raw materials of the region into products needed by a new nation.

Your Guide

Barbara Solem is a popular Pine Barrens speaker and resident of Shamong, NJ. She is the author of Ghost Towns and Other Quirky Places in the New Jersey Pine Barrens, The Forks: A Brief History of the Area, and Batsto Village: Jewel of the Pines. She is a member of the Batsto Citizens Committee, Inc. and in season serves as a tour guide at the Atsion Mansion. Barbara’s extensive knowledge of the Pine Barrens will bring its history to life.